Column: Crawford could have been something

LAWRENCE -- It's not that I feel anything specific about Jocques Crawford's departure from the Kansas football program. I didn't know him personally. He wasn't much of a factor on the field last year. He isn't a Kansan. He was neither pleasant nor unpleasant as an interview. He was kind of funny sometimes.

But something about this feels, I don't know, sad.

Some people will find it difficult to feel sorry for someone like Crawford. He's a 230-pound guy from Memphis with a lot of football talent, an icy, vacant stare and a past that includes a high-school rape allegation of which he was not convicted.

I have no insight or opinions as to his guilt or innocence in that case. All I can do is trust our justice system, which concluded Crawford is not a rapist. Unfortunately -- and this goes way beyond Jocques Crawford -- being accused of rape reads the same to a lot of people as being convicted of it, and there aren't many things worse to be considered than a rapist.

So Crawford lost all his Division I scholarship offers and went to the middle of nowhere to play junior college football. His coaches at Cisco (Texas) Junior College never had an issue with him. He ran for almost 2,000 yards. He was the offensive player of the year. The scholarship offers started coming again.

Before he even laced 'em up at Kansas, it was obvious the coaching staff believed he would be KU's starting running back in 2008. Mark Mangino praised him like I've never heard him praise a newcomer before. In practices, he looked awesome. He was big and fast and shifty. He didn't move like other guys. His legs pumped like pistons and he juked safeties and fluidly caught swing passes. It seemed plausible he was the best player Mangino had ever signed at Kansas.

At media day, he was the only player anybody wanted to talk to. He was asked about the rape case. He was asked about his ability. He was asked about the transition from junior college. He was asked weird stuff. He seemed dazzled. He talked about his braces. He looked like guy bombarded, because that's what he was. This hadn't happened in Cisco, Texas.

And then he said he wanted to rush for 2,000 yards. He didn't guarantee it. He didn't even suggest it would happen. He said it was his goal. That goal made him a punchline. He rushed for 232 yards.

By midseason, it seemed like KU's staff had given up on him. And then, in what appeared to be a last-ditch effort to salvage him, they put him at kick returner against Oklahoma. And on a crucial third-quarter drive, put him in for Jake Sharp at running back. None of it really worked out.

And then, this spring, he was arrested and, as KU police put it, "unarrested" for his involvement in the accident that sent teammate Ben Leuken to the hospital. That was pretty much it for Crawford.

There are a few different ways to look at him. You can see a guy with a red-flagged past and a tendency to find himself near trouble. You can see a cocky jock who thinks he's invincible. You can see a guy who's just plain no good.

Who knows? You might be close on all three, or you might not. But I don't see it any of those ways. This is just a hunch, a feeling I get, but I see Jocques Crawford as a guy who needed to avoid a couple mistakes and needed to have a couple things go his way.

None of that happened, and it's just too bad.

Tully Corcoran can be reached at (785) 295-5652 or tully.corcoran@cjonline.com.